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Lee Morgan - Live at the Lighthouse


Peter Johnson

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I heard this band many times at Slugs'.

It was a Great! band! Killing!

When Harper repalced Maupin, and especially when Waits replaced Roker, it wasn't the same.

But then, if memory serves, Maupin joined McCoy in another terrific band, with Tolliver, Herbie Lewis and Waits? came on since Lee had died.

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also who can share a review of the lee version of rakin n scrapin- still waitin for that!

If it’s the Lighthouse version you mean (I’m not fluent in Chewyese), it’s a fantastic, hard-driving version. A firecracking solo from Maupin spurred on by Morgan, nice solo by the composer and fantastic funky bass by Jymie Merritt. Morgan’s solo is surprisingly subdued, but perhaps this was to provide contrast to Maupin’s solo.

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I never cared for Bennie Maupin's playing. With all the fine bop/hard bop tenor players around" back in the day", Maupin sounded like a Minor Leaguer to me. His sound was unappealing, and he didn't swing hard - to my ears.

Tenor players such as Hank Mobley, Junior Cook, Clifford Jordan, Joe Henderson, Johnny Griffin, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt, J.R. Monterose, Frank Foster, Stanley Turrentine, Sonny Rollins, Booker Ervin, Jimmy Heath, George Coleman, Wayne Shorter, Sal Nistico, Yusef Lateef, Benny Golson and James Moody are just some of the most prominent examples of Major Leaguers who were a number of levels above Maupin.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Is there any reason to disbelieve Bob Belden's account, in the BN "Live at the Lighthouse" booklet, of where the Fresh Sounds material came from? Belden, who's reliable on such matters to my knowledge, says (per Bennie Maupin) that the Fresh Sounds material came from a San Francisco gig at the Both/And (broadcast over the radio), two weeks prior to the Lighthouse gig. Thus, the FS performances are airchecks and do not duplicate the Lighthouse performances. Haven't heard the FS discs, but the sound on the Lighthouse performances has always seemed plenty beastly to me (clotted, distorted, you name it). Who was the idiot, one Dino Lappas, who recorded them -- or was Lappas working under weird restrictions? (Belden speaks of the source tape problems, more gently than he should have IMO.) I did hear the band live in Chicago, and somewhere in my brain there's preserved a decent sense of how they really sounded.

Yes, there is reason to dispute Bob on this account. I might have a clue as I "co-produced" the Blue Note re-issue of this material and also recorded for Fresh Sound Records and produced new recordings for them and have been to their offices in Barcelona and have some knowledge of their operations. Let me lay it out this way without relying on my inside knowledge.

Yes, the group was at the Both/And the week before the Lighthouse. Yes, it's possible that there was a radio broadcast from the Both/And. But how does anyone know that this is the material that is on the Fresh Sound CD. Does Bennie remember what he (or Lee or anyone) played that night and when he heard the Fresh Sound CD (if he ever has heard the Fresh Sound CD) said oh yes I remember playing that lick the night of the radio broadcast 30 years ago. Now, the Fresh Sound release says original recording produced by Howard Rumsey and there are other Live at The Lighthouse recordings released on Fresh Sound. Now just on these facts, where do you think the material on the Fresh Sound release was recorded? The band was at the Lighthouse for two weeks and the Blue Note material was recorded towards the end of the engagement. I still firmly believe the Fresh Sound material was recorded at the Lighthouse earlier in their run at the club. By the way, there is probably 3 or 4 more CDs worth of material from this date still in the Blue Note vaults. We put out one version of every tune they recorded but there are 3 or 4 versions of many of the tunes recorded. Picking the strongest performances of each tune was easy in most cases except for a couple of incidences. I had about three or four bootleg LPs with the strange titles and all this stuff is the stuff that's on the Fresh Sound CDs.

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wait so are you sayin the frsh sound version is bootleg blue note tapes?!?!?

No, I believe the fresh sound stuff was recorded by Howard Rumsey at the Lighthouse earlier in the engagement.

I've listened to every note that Blue Note recorded for these sessions (32 tracks total I think) and none of the tracks are the same as what is heard on the Fresh Sound CD (or the prior LP issues on various label)

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Now its making a little more sense to me. I have had both sets for quite a while now. (the Fresh Sounds on cd while I had the Blue Note double lp and then got the wonderful Blue Note Box Set which ( thanks DavidW) I thought was a gorgeous treat for Lee Morgan fans and a truly interesting piece of history for any Morgan fans.

Back to the original topic from yesterday I would advise that if you have the BN box and you like that then get the Fresh Sounds one...the sound is not as oggod I will warrant but still enjoyable. In my humble opinion.

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wait so are you sayin the frsh sound version is bootleg blue note tapes?!?!?

No, I believe the fresh sound stuff was recorded by Howard Rumsey at the Lighthouse earlier in the engagement.

I've listened to every note that Blue Note recorded for these sessions (32 tracks total I think) and none of the tracks are the same as what is heard on the Fresh Sound CD (or the prior LP issues on various label)

I really should look this up, but I'm pretty sure that the FS cds are from the Both/And in San Francisco.

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But David (who co-produced the set) is saying above that Belden's claim may be disputable (post # 35).

How can we find out? Only if there is someone out there who taped the Both/And radio broadcast when it was aired. There must be SOMEONE out there!

I like David's theory that the tapes were probably purchased from Rumsey, so they must be from the Lighthouse. One thing is odd: some tracks on the Fresh Sound date are not on the Blue Note CD. Did they really drop 'The Chief' from the repertoire between the beginning and end of their Lighthouse residency?

Bertrand.

Edited by bertrand
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Is there any reason to disbelieve Bob Belden's account, in the BN "Live at the Lighthouse" booklet, of where the Fresh Sounds material came from? Belden, who's reliable on such matters to my knowledge, says (per Bennie Maupin) that the Fresh Sounds material came from a San Francisco gig at the Both/And (broadcast over the radio), two weeks prior to the Lighthouse gig. Thus, the FS performances are airchecks and do not duplicate the Lighthouse performances. Haven't heard the FS discs, but the sound on the Lighthouse performances has always seemed plenty beastly to me (clotted, distorted, you name it). Who was the idiot, one Dino Lappas, who recorded them -- or was Lappas working under weird restrictions? (Belden speaks of the source tape problems, more gently than he should have IMO.) I did hear the band live in Chicago, and somewhere in my brain there's preserved a decent sense of how they really sounded.

Yes, there is reason to dispute Bob on this account. I might have a clue as I "co-produced" the Blue Note re-issue of this material and also recorded for Fresh Sound Records and produced new recordings for them and have been to their offices in Barcelona and have some knowledge of their operations. Let me lay it out this way without relying on my inside knowledge.

Yes, the group was at the Both/And the week before the Lighthouse. Yes, it's possible that there was a radio broadcast from the Both/And. But how does anyone know that this is the material that is on the Fresh Sound CD. Does Bennie remember what he (or Lee or anyone) played that night and when he heard the Fresh Sound CD (if he ever has heard the Fresh Sound CD) said oh yes I remember playing that lick the night of the radio broadcast 30 years ago. Now, the Fresh Sound release says original recording produced by Howard Rumsey and there are other Live at The Lighthouse recordings released on Fresh Sound. Now just on these facts, where do you think the material on the Fresh Sound release was recorded? The band was at the Lighthouse for two weeks and the Blue Note material was recorded towards the end of the engagement. I still firmly believe the Fresh Sound material was recorded at the Lighthouse earlier in their run at the club. By the way, there is probably 3 or 4 more CDs worth of material from this date still in the Blue Note vaults. We put out one version of every tune they recorded but there are 3 or 4 versions of many of the tunes recorded. Picking the strongest performances of each tune was easy in most cases except for a couple of incidences. I had about three or four bootleg LPs with the strange titles and all this stuff is the stuff that's on the Fresh Sound CDs.

Man, I'd love to hear everything that was recorded at the Lighthouse!!!! Amazing. I wonder if this stuff will ever get the Plugged Nickel treatment, as in THE COMPLETE.....

I also noticed in the Grant Green "Live At Club Mozambique" that there were like 3 days worth of sets recorded. And all we got was one 'lil ol CD of about 8 songs. :wacko:

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